Daisy Ridley Discusses Her Nolan-Inspired Film 'Magpie' and How “Surreal” It Was To Meet Another Rey at Disneyland (2025)

Magpie is the thrilling brainchild of producer and lead Daisy Ridley and her partner, actor and writer Tom Bateman. This independent project was conjured from Ridley's personal experiences on the set of a previous film, when the actress contemplated the loneliness of movie shoots and the psychological effects it could have on someone. From that point on, the production would become a whirlwind effort, and after a four-week shoot in the UK, the team celebrated its World Premiere at South by Southwest earlier this year.

Months later, Collider was fortunate enough to team up with Align, Shout! Studios, Werewolf Films, and 55 Films for an advanced screening ahead of Magpie's theatrical release this weekend. After the credits rolled, Ridley, Bateman, and co-star and longtime friend Shazad Latif joined the audience for an extended Q&A.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above or read the transcript below for the behind-the-scenes of Magpie, including Ridley's "cracking the whip" throughout the writing process and how the movie changed throughout production. In addition to Magpie, the trio tease exciting updates on other projects like Star Wars, AMC's Nautilus, Latif's mysterious novel-based adaptation role that's yet to be officially announced, Kenneth Branagh's upcoming psychological thriller, and Nia DaCosta and Tessa Thompson's Hedda.

You Don't Say No to Viggo Mortensen and Ron Howard

COLLIDER: What do you think would surprise people to learn about being an actor in this industry?

SHAZAD LATIF: It's a lot of bad food. There's a lot of bad stuff to eat on set, isn't there? It's never what you think.

That's just the UK. In America, they feed you.

LATIF: The UK’s bad, yeah. The UK specifically.

TOM BATEMAN: It's stupid fun. It's really fun. I think people would be aware of how fun it is but honestly, it's so, so fun. I don't think I can get that across enough. You sit there and get to hang out with really fun, cool people all day in amazing costumes and do stupid things. It's fun.

DAISY RIDLEY: Usually, this being the outlier, it just takes so long. Often, when you get a job, to then actually begin the job can be literal years, so that's something.

You guys have all worked on other projects. Which shot or sequence through your career do you think was the hardest to do, whether because of camera moves, dialogue and the camera moves, whatever it may be?

LATIF: I had to smash a piece of glass underwater but while holding your breath for, like, a minute and a half. We got trained by some weird guy who teaches surfers how to hold your breath for, like, seven minutes. So, learning that and then doing that. But then watching the dudes who are there to help you eating sandwiches underwater — that was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but that was also great.

Was that on Nautilus ?

LATIF: Yeah.

BATEMAN: Mine's a water one, as well. I did a movie with Ron Howard about the rescue of the boys stuck in the cave in Thailand, which was an amazing film to be a part of. But Viggo [Mortensen] decided that we would do all our own stunts, and the point of the film was that no one in the world could do what these guys did, which was cave diving, which is just awful. You're going through holes this big underwater. We got stuck in there for, like, 17, 18 minutes at a time, not moving, in like a coffin of water. That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

And you can't say no because I know Viggo. He told me that that was a big thing with him. He wanted to make it as real as possible. You can't say no when Viggo is like, “We're all gonna do this.”

BATEMAN: No. We were also sitting around — we'd been training in the pool — and he said I think we should do this to Ron. And we were all in the pool, and we were going, “We haven't talked about this, Viggo,” and then he just turned to us and went, “Right, guys?” In front of Ron Howard and Viggo, you're not gonna say, “I don't feel like doing that, actually, Aragorn.”

RIDLEY: I'm gonna talk about a recent one involving our mutual friend, Martin Campbell. I did a film with him last year, an action movie, and there is a sequence in the movie where I drop from the ceiling with a plastic bag. So, as I land, I have to put the plastic bag over a man's head, and then there's a barrel next to us, and I have to swing him into the barrel, and then I have to swing him out of shot. Because the camera was in a particular place, I had to swing him hard enough out of shot so that we cleared the frame, but I was being held by two guys, so it's not a perfect science. The mat was, like, this big, and I was high. I was lower than this ceiling, but high. So, each time someone had to stop my legs because I was swinging because I was on a harness. So then I had to stop my legs, run away, and then I was like, “Here we go,” knowing that I was about to be dropped, so I had to have my knee soft enough to land. Then I knew that when I landed, I had to get the plastic bag over the head, and I would literally miss a plastic bag and be like, “Fuck,” genuinely, because the adrenaline was so high. Then I wrenched my shoulder, and I smashed into the thing. My adrenaline was so high by the end of it, I was like, “Let's go again!” But it probably took, I know, 15 takes to do that one shot.

Things I can't do ever. Tom, this is an individual question for you. I read that you have 12 siblings.

BATEMAN: That is incorrect.

So that's just a joke online?

BATEMAN: I have 13 siblings.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

BATEMAN: They are half brothers and sisters, as well, but we are blood-related. I won't go into that web.

So you have a twin brother named Merlin?

BATEMAN: That is correct.

My thing is, his name is Merlin and your name is Tom. When you were a kid, were you like, “How come he's Merlin?” Because that's a fucking cool name.

BATEMAN: That's a question I ask as an adult because, as a kid, you want to be Tom because Merlin just gets the wizard jokes. As a kid, no one was gonna pick on us because we were twins — there's two of us — but he was like, “Oh, haha, the Merlin thing.” But as soon as you get to 17 or 18 years old, it's incredibly cool, and then I'm just Tom. My parents haven't given me an answer. I asked them, and it’s just this awkward shrug, and they look away and pretend I haven't said anything.

I mean, it could be that they just watched Excalibur the day before.

Daisy Ridley Will Never Forget the Feeling of Being on 'The Force Awakens'

What's the most nervous you've been the day before the first day of filming something where you were in your head all night and just couldn't sleep?

RIDLEY: I’m gonna say The Force Awakens. You guys might have heard of it. It wasn't just the day before, it was the month before and the month before that, and then the day of. I remember it being, really specifically, so hot. There was a wider shot, and I was behind the speeder, and I had to come around. I had never really properly been on set before, outside of, like, two weeks on something, so it was all very new. Someone had an umbrella over me, and that was new. Being in the desert, you're like, “Oh, yeah, of course. We have to protect ourselves from the sun.” And I remember going, “Oh my god, I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it.” As they were rolling, as she was running away with the umbrella, I thought, “How the fuck do I do this?” So, I still remember that feeling.

LATIF: Mine was I did The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and it had Judi Dench, Richard Gere, Bill Nye, Celia Emery, countless other huge, huge actors. I was doing a wedding scene in front of all of them, like, the first day, and I was just shitting myself. That was a scary day.

BATEMAN: Mine was I just finished a movie this year that Kenneth Branagh's written and directed where I'm acting opposite Jodie Comer. We got told the night before there was this five-page dialogue scene. It was immense. I can't remember the movie at all, but the emotional shifts and gear changes in the scene were exhausting just to read. Ken told us the night before, he said, “Just a little heads-up, we're talking about doing this in a oner. We wanna just do this steadicam through the house, you and Jodie. See you tomorrow.” That was really terrifying because the writing is so good that there were so many interpretations of the scene that I wanted to try out, but obviously, you're just doing it in a oner, so you can't really. You just gotta go for it. We did it for hours, and it was really cool. But I remember the night before I didn't sleep too much because I was just in my head over and over it, just imagining how it would go, wanting it to go a certain way. Jodie was the same. We turned up in the morning, and we were both so tired and we have to do this thing.

How do you learn lines? For me, even two lines I can't remember. How do you do it when it's a huge thing like that? How do you three learn lines, especially when you're presented the night before with completely new pages and you need to get it all down?

LATIF: I don't know if there's any specific thing. I just read it over and over again until you get it. But the time I got it, like, four hours before, I think I was doing Star Trek [Discovery], and there was no way of learning it, so I just got them to write it up. I remember them just putting it up and just reading it. Sometimes you need to read it off the board.

Marlon Brando did that. He was successful.

RIDLEY: I'm gonna shout out my dialect coach, Rick Lipton, certainly for American things, which is very different in terms of getting prepared. We will have a session on a Sunday. So, we'll do all of the accent prep for the film, and then on a Sunday, we'll go through the week's scenes. It's a really great way of just going through it out loud. Then, when it came back to doing an English accent for this, I was like, “How do I do this in English?” But because I'd been very part of this process, I sort of knew as much of it as I could. Then, a scene partner, a line-learning partner.

BATEMAN: Do your homework, man. Of course, if you're given scenes the day before, short-term memory is an amazing thing, too, so the night before, it's quite remarkable and surprising, you go, “Oh my god, I can't believe I know it in my head.” Short-term memory is incredible. Like that scene with Jodie that I was just telling you about, I knew that was coming, and when I was reading the script, I went, “Whoa.” So I knew that that was just going to be five pages of us, just going at each other. So I thought, just every day, little and often, just do it, just learn it, just learn it, just learn it, and it does go in.

RIDLEY: Also, I will say, if it's well written, it's easier to learn. It tends to be a really good litmus test, because if something's not going in it — not always — but it can be that it's just not quite sitting, character-wise.

How the Original Idea for 'Magpie' Changed

Jumping into why you guys are here tonight. Daisy, this is a story you came up with. Where did this idea come from?

RIDLEY: The very original idea, I was on set for The Marsh King's Daughter, and I had a little girl in it who was called Joey [Carson], and she was just amazing. She was six, and she was super smart, so she knew that I wasn't her mom. Her dad was with her on set because her mom was at home — she had had a new baby — and I remember thinking, “This is so wild,” because she was smart enough to know I wasn't her mum, but she's calling me mum in the scene, and she's six. She's just a little girl. So, I just loved my relationship with her.

Initially, the idea actually was an actress infiltrating a family, so on the plane back, I thought, “Oh, that'd be interesting,” because I was away from home. It was COVID time, so it was super lonely, and Toronto was super shut down, so I was either on set or alone. I remember thinking, if one didn't have a solid bedrock or something to come home to, it's very destabilizing going away and being in different places and these incredibly intense relationships you build very quickly on set. So, what might that be if someone didn't have the stability of a family or a rock there? That was the very, very original thing. I got back and Tom picked me up from the airport, and we sort of spitballed. Then he started writing it a few weeks later. It was Tom who said, “I feel much more drawn to the women at home,” so that is how Magpie was birthed.

Tom, you have never written a screenplay, as far as I know.

BATEMAN: This is my first screenplay that has been produced and shot and finished, so yes. I haven't written anything else that's out there. Daisy is my sounding board, the first person that I send anything or give anything to. She's the first person who'd read anything years ago. Daisy bought me my first laptop when I was writing my first thing on, like, an iPad Notes. Daisy read it, and she said she really liked it, and she was so supportive of it. That was years ago.

So, she asked me, because she'd read a bunch of my screenplays, some of which are in development, but she said when I picked her up from the airport, “I've got this idea, and what do you think about it?” I said, “I think it's cool. Really cool idea. And I've never heard of anything like it.” Then she said, “And would you write it?” The bit that she missed out there, though, is the speed at which — like I say, being married to Daisy is like being strapped to a rocket. She literally said, “What do you think about it?” I said, “Yeah, great.” I said, “Give me a second to think about it.” About three days later, she said, “We've got a meeting with these producers pitching it.” I barely even had a synopsis there, I just had a rough idea.

We pitched it. Three days later, they came back and said, “We want to make this with you. Let's go. We want a first draft soon.” Daisy just started cracking the whip, so I was waking up every day at, like, 4 a.m., writing. I’d just make a jug of coffee, write from four until 10, Daisy would come down, and read everything. I’d just pace up and down, chain-smoking, terrified, nervous. Wonderfully, she’d just tell me, “I like this, don't like this,” and we just grafted it together like that over a period. I think the first draft came in about three weeks, and then, obviously, we redrafted it and redrafted it, but yeah.

That's crazy. I didn't realize you did all these other scripts, but let me just say congrats on your first produced screenplay.

BATEMAN: Thank you.

Christopher Nolan and David Fincher Inspired the Structure of 'Magpie'

I'm always fascinated by how things change in the writing process. You've already mentioned a little bit, but were there any other big changes along the way?

BATEMAN: There were quite a few. I was always interested in, particularly given that for me, the motives and the theme and big DNA of this film was perspective, what is real? What is not real? Who sees things in a certain way, and what is the presented world that we are seeing in the hidden world? And so I wanted to take that a step further with this sort of Nolan-esque twist at the end. I was inspired by things like Memento, where you think you've been watching the one thing and you haven't. A lot of things came in, like Gone Girl. These things were kicking around in my head.

Daisy and I, when we first wanted to make something together, we said what we wanted is an experience for an audience to watch in a cinema together and just have that, “What?!” moment, and have an exciting response to it, and talk about character things in there, too. So, that was a big thing we didn't start out doing. I can't remember when, but I said, “I’d be really interested in this. Let's take this a step further in terms of not only the characters who people are not what they seem but the story structure itself. I wanna hide certain things from the audience or wrong-foot them, red-flag them,” which was a bit of a curveball, I think. From there on, it sort of just came about like that.

Shazad, what was your reaction reading the script for the first time and playing a character like this where maybe some women aren't gonna like you?

LATIF: I remember when Tom texted me — we're all very old friends — and he sent it over. I read it very quickly, and I was just blown away. I called him straight back, and he was like, “Do you want to do it?” I went, “Yeah! I’d love to make a movie with my friends.” So, it was an immediate thing. It just flowed. And obviously, playing a sort of, in a way, kind of villain, it's always fun to just step into that and try. I don't know. It just seemed exciting. For me, it was just nice to have a lot of two-handers — it’s me and Daisy, and then it’s me on the set, and it's me and the kid. It's quite a nice thing to think you're gonna play all these things. It's quite an enjoyable thing to do. And it's good to be hated sometimes in terms of the character.

I was gonna say that. I mean, no one's gonna punch you in the face, but maybe that's a good response.

BATEMAN: I wanna say, too, when we premiered this at South by Southwest, Shazzy had never seen the film. We kept saying, “Do you wanna see it? Do you wanna see it?” And he was like, “No, I wanna see it with a big audience in the cinema.” And it was, like, 300 or 400 people booing him and applauding when Daisy had strength against him and stuff. At the end of it, when we were all coming up, and they were like, “And Shazad Latif…” people were literally booing him, and Shazzy was like this panto hero just going, “Yeah!” He loved it.

There's a possibility that men and women are gonna view this two different ways. Have you noticed that during the screenings?

RIDLEY: There have been a couple of differences. We did a feedback screening because the edit was really a wonderful, straightforward process. We always had a really clear vision of the film we wanted to make, and Sam [Yates] came on and is amazing, our director, and Chris [Watson], our editor, is amazing, so we were always super aligned with what we wanted to make. It got to the point where we were like, “Are we drinking our own Kool-Aid? Are we crazy? Why is this so simple?” So we did a feedback screening just to get a sense of it, and it was interesting because there was one person who said, “Poor Ben,” which was surprising. But for the most part, we found that it's an amazing conversation starter because people view things differently. Certainly, as someone who has seen this 100 times, there are times when I think Anette is much more provoking and a lot of times when I don't, which is also strange because it's me watching myself, but I feel very strangely removed from it being me. So, it's been, across the board, a really amazing, conversation.

When you were writing this and when you guys were coming up and working on this, how much were you cognizant of the budget you might have to make this and writing it in such a way that it's doable with the resources you're gonna have?

BATEMAN: I mean, we couldn't blow up Waterloo Station, but I don't think there were very many concessions made. I remember we were talking with the costume designer and the designers with the film within a film and how expensive that would be. I wanted this clear division of the film and then the film within the film, and also tonally, what those period dramas can do, and that was never met with any resistance. They said, “Yeah, let's go and do it,” and we found these locations.

A lot of it was just being very savvy. Daisy was amazing. Daisy really did produce this whole thing, and Kate [Solomon]. How savvy they were getting things, like, “Oh, okay, let's get our trailers, and that's just our set for free,” because it's the trailers that the actors were actually in, and you just flip the cameras around. Our crew were amazing and said they'd be in it. That's a lot of our crew actually in it when you see that crew up there. They kind of loved it. So, it was just being a big old team.

We did talk about how we wanted this kind of pressure cooker, this kind of one house, this one location that she's trapped in. She's in this cage and she can't get away from it, and even when she does, she's being dragged back. So then, the sets around it, we didn't want them to be too adventurous or take the narrative away too much, so really, the story itself, we never said, “Let's make a $20 million movie. Oh, god, we have to scale it back.” We said, “This is the movie we want to make. Let's think about how we can do this and keep the most control possible.”

For all three of you, I’m assuming you were on set every day?

BATEMAN: I was in Los Angeles.

RIDLEY: It's funny, because the way he answered that, I was like, “Were you there?” [Laughs] As someone who was there…[Laughs] I think the way, honestly, we made this film is relationships. I have been lucky enough to work with incredible people in the UK and called upon some wonderful people that I know. We did not do anyone dirty, for sure, but everyone knew that we didn't have unlimited money and we had a very tight schedule. But I had made Sometimes I Think About Dying on this schedule; it was a very different movie, but I knew it could be done, so I was there going, “I know we can do this. I absolutely know we can do this.”

I really wanted everyone to have a great experience on the film, the cast and the crew, so we were really communicative. We said to everyone coming in, “This is what we're going to do, and this is how we're going to do it. If you're on board, this is amazing.” And honestly, every one of our cast members were our first choice, and every one of our crew members. It was really an amazing experience in that way. I feel like that propulsion definitely was there. But also, shout out to that crew because they’re amazing. Even Translux, who were our facilities, were really, really good to us. Even here, honestly, people have been really good to us. It's been a really wonderful experience in that way of people helping each other out.

For the two of you who were there while they were filming, when you saw the shooting schedule in front of you, which day did you have circled in terms of, “I can't wait to film this,” and was there any day where you were like, “How exactly are we gonna film this?”

LATIF: I think the final dinner table scene, because it's all four of us for a bit, and then all three of us together in that way for the first time. It's the big moment, and so that was a day I was like, “Okay, that's gonna be a big one,” which is always quite exciting, but also scary.

RIDLEY: I think the big one was our stunt, probably, in terms of, “Oh my god, can we get this?” That was really something where we had the budget to do that once, and we had eight cameras. It was amazing. But also, the light had to be particularly right, and, of course, it's incredibly dangerous so we had an amazing stunt driver called George. That was something that I think everyone was really excited about. We thought, “We got one go at this, and hopefully we get it right.” I remember the feeling when that happened. Everyone was like, “Oh my god!” That was also our last shoot day, so it was scary and exciting and thrilling.

Daisy Ridley May "Take a Second" Before Producing and Acting Again

What do you think would surprise people to learn about being a producer and starring in something that you came up with?

RIDLEY: It's tough. Over the years, one grows a thick skin — well, one tries to grow a thick skin — because people tell you how they feel. It's weird when the business and the creativity meet because, in a lot of ways, I had an amazing time doing it, but I could take a second before I do that again because it's so revealing, I suppose. There are things that I wouldn't know about selling it or films that I'm not this involved in, and suddenly you know, and you think, “Oh my god.” It's almost too much to know.

It was funny because, actually, when we premiered at South by, we were all flying high. It was amazing, the reaction was amazing, we had this wonderful party afterward. We got in the cab, and I was like, “I feel so sad.” I had flown in from Australia because I was mid-shoot, so I was very tired, but it was a strange thing — it doesn't stop. We all had a great time, but then we had to sell the film. Then it's the weeks of waiting, like, did you sell the film, and did you make people's money back? It's strange. And in a lot of ways, because we were able to do what we wanted to do, I couldn't be happier, I wouldn't change the film, but it is a lot.

I don’t think a lot of people realize how many films right now are premiering at festivals with stars and are missing in action. They premiered and then they're gone. No one picked it up. It's just a very strange time. So, congrats. It also tells you something about the quality of the movie that it's coming out. It's a very bad time in the industry.

Do you have any favorite memories from set? Is there a day or a scene or a moment that's the first thing that comes to your mind?

LATIF: It was nice because we spent two weeks in a house together. We filmed a lot of that house stuff in order. Just spending time as a family and making pancakes, and then getting really horrible. We were just there. Also, my brother lived around the corner, so I didn't have to drive back to London, so that was quite nice.

So you cheated.

LATIF: I cheated. But it was just nice being in that zone for for two weeks and the whole thing, not knowing what you're gonna do that day. Because it was a four-week shoot, we just did everything. You just go. It was a nice way of filming. I like that, just doing everything and going nuts.

RIDLEY: I like to be on sets anyway, so I always tend to be on set. I don't tend to go back to my trailer. But being on set in this way was really amazing because to be able to be there and do a scene, and then they're doing something else, I sort of felt a bit left out and a bit like, “What's going on? Why aren't I in the scene?” But to really be part of it in that way, the whole thing was pretty remarkable.

When Does 'Nautilus' Hit AMC?

When am I seeing Nautilus ?

LATIF: I think it's next Friday on Amazon.

When we last spoke, it was going to be AMC.

LATIF: So that's mid-next year, I think, AMC. But next Friday, Amazon UK. AMC next year for the US.

So you need to be in the UK to watch it next Friday. I can't watch it until next year.

LATIF: If you fly over next Friday.

I'm really looking forward to seeing it, and for people who don't realize, it's a big, big show. What do you want to tell people about it?

LATIF: It’s a revenge story. Indian Prince, Captain Nemo, finds the East India Company. It’s a swashbuckling adventure, brown guys on a ship. That’s what I keep going to. It’s all of that. His wife and child have been murdered, and he's trying to get back to the East India Company. It’s the origin story of Captain Nemo, Jules Verne.

Eight episodes or 10?

LATIF: Ten.

I'm so excited to see it. What is this Kenneth Branagh movie about? Are you allowed to say?

BATEMAN: I'm not allowed to say, but also, even if I was allowed to say, we made a joke that I think I read the script 10 times before I understood 10% of it. I kept saying to him, “How did you come up with this movie?” Come watch it. It'll be out next year. It's a real web. Nothing is as it seems. Jodie’s character, at the center of it, is going through this thing that makes her own perspective unreliable anyway, so, for that to be your protagonist, it's just a mess.

Also, Shazad, you booked something pretty cool, which you can’t talk about.

LATIF: Can't talk about it yet, but very soon. It's a good one.

It is a good one.

LATIF: [Laughs] It’s exciting.

I don't know when it's gonna get announced, but I'm just gonna say that it's a good one. Tom, I also want to ask you about Hedda . Talk about who's directing this, and what can you tease?

BATEMAN: The amazing Nia DaCosta. She has written an adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play, and Tessa Thompson is playing Hedda Gabler. They actually put this thing together. It's Tessa's production company. It's a passion project that they've both wanted to do since they worked together in that movie, Beyond the Woods — great, great movie they did together at Sundance, which is where they first met. Nia said, “This is my favorite play. I've always wanted to do it,” and said to Tessa, “Let's do it.” And, as Daisy said earlier on, you could have an idea for a movie, and it could be five, six, or seven years before it actually happens, and that's what happened here.

It's an amazing film. The cast is incredible. Nina Hoss is in it, me, Tessa, Imogen Poots, and Nicholas Pinnock. It's really, really cool as a movie. We shot it all night shoots. The action takes place pretty much over the course of one night. I play Hedda’s husband, and it's our coming-home wedding party where everything goes horribly wrong, and it’s brilliant. We shot it all in England earlier this year in the freezing cold, night shoots. We were zombies by the end of it, but we were really proud of it.

I don't think people realize what shooting nights for an extended period of time does to your brain.

BATEMAN: Actually, that's a better answer for what's a surprising thing about being an actor? That. It’s tough waking up every day at 4 p.m. or getting into work at 4 p.m., getting ready, and then cameras are turning over when the sun goes down at 7 p.m. It gets to 34 in the morning, and you're going, “Who am I?” And you have to do this intense dialogue scene with Nina Hoss, who is one of my heroes, and you're going, “I don't even know who I am anymore. What is this?” And the birds singing terrifies you. You hear birds singing and you know that's almost a wrap. You go, “I have to go to bed now and do it again tomorrow.” You become a walking zombie.

Daisy Ridley Met Rey at Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland

Daisy, I have to ask you probably the most important question of the night, and it's not gonna be what you're thinking. What the hell was it like for you riding on Rise of the Resistance for the first time and going to Disneyland and being on that ride?

RIDLEY: It was kooky. It was also really funny because I was there with Bryan Burk, who J.J. [Abrams] and Bryan worked together for a long time, and Bryan was very involved in Force Awakens. I’m still really good friends with him, and he loves Disneyland, so we were there, so that was very surreal anyway, because I met him when I was 20. I had seen lots of images of it and videos of it, but I hadn't seen it. Then I was on the ride, and it was so surreal. The rest of that ride is unbelievable. It doesn't stop. It's the most amazing thing. Then meeting someone that's playing me, and they had studied me, so she was doing stuff, and I was thinking, “Is that what I do? Oh my god.” She was amazing. That was very trippy, someone who studied you playing you.

Did the person in the park know you were there? What was their reaction when you were walking up? I can't imagine.

RIDLEY: I think she had been told, and honestly, she didn't drop character. She was amazing. She's American doing an English accent. It was one of those things that, at the time, I was like, “Hey, how are you doing?” And then we walked away, and I thought, “What is going on?” Then we went on Guardians of the Galaxy, so then you're like, “Whoa, what's happening?” But it took a little while to take in what I had seen.

If you've never been to Disneyland, it's totally worth going just for that ride. The ride is spectacular. Had you seen a video of the actual ride before getting on it?

RIDLEY: I had seen a video of my hologram, but I hadn't seen a video of the ride. Even when you go up in the lift, it's unbelievable! It was all new. It was amazing.

We'll Be Getting a Star Wars Update Soon

As long as you're here and we're talking about Star Wars, do you want to give anyone an update? How are things going? Is there any news?

RIDLEY: Things are evolving. I continue to be very excited. There will be an update soon.

Thank you for answering my query. I just have to ask, are you guys watching Andor ? If not, for the love of God, you need to watch Andor .

RIDLEY: I have been told to watch it. I have to say, it is one of those things, it does feel very close, strangely, to watch it. It's like a family sort of thing. But everyone tells me how amazing it is.

We're in New York City right now, and I'm just curious, what the hell do you enjoy doing in New York City when you're here? Is there a restaurant or a type of food that you guys are like, “We're getting this while we're here?”

LATIF: I just visited my friend Anthony. I've been with him all day. We just tried a negroni at bar, Piccolo. It’s just in Greenwich, and it's one of the best drinks I've ever had in my life. I like to eat a lot, so I'm excited to eat here.

RIDLEY: We got in from the airport, and I had already Uber Eated Le Botaniste, this unbelievable vegan restaurant. They do a quinoa pasta bolognese thing and some cookies. Shout out Le Botoaniste. So good.

For people that have not been to London and the UK, is there a certain place that you really recommend? Say, hypothetically, someone sitting next to you is going to London tomorrow for a junket. Is there a place that you recommend in the city?

RIDLEY: Trishna — amazing Indian restaurant on Marylebone Street. That's the one that's coming to mind right now.

BATEMAN: Duck and Rice on Poland Street in Soho. Their venison puffs are insane. They're so, so good.

LATIF: I really like this restaurant called Trullo. It's not really in the city, but it's a really good pasta. Very good pasta.

New York Comic Con just took place here. Is there anything that you guys collect? If you walked around Comic Con, what would you be looking for?

LATIF: I like movie clothes merchandise, so my favorite thing I have is a Big Trouble in Little China jacket. Wang [Dennis Dun] wears it in the film. So, if there's a piece of clothing from a movie that I can try and get, that's my thing.

Like real clothing?

LATIF: No, it’s not the one from the movie, but it's the same jacket.

BATEMAN: I don't collect anything. I kind of want to. I want to be a person who collects stuff, but I don't collect anything.

It's actually much healthier if you don't.

BATEMAN: I bet.

It really, really is.

BATEMAN: Did you choose, like, “I'm gonna be a guy who collects jackets?”

LATIF: No, I don’t. I mean, that's my main one. I might get something from Demolition Man, though, or there are certain movies.

RIDLEY: I'm the same as Tom.

BATEMAN: Our house is empty. [Laughs]

RIDLEY: We own nothing. I want to be someone who collects. I want to be someone who has an acting process, I really do, but I don't. There are just things that I want to do, and I'm not there yet, but I will get there.

Did you say you don't have a process?

RIDLEY: No. You know how some people have an incredibly specific thing, and they have a smell, and they have a song that they listen to? I want to do that, and I've tried. Also, on the last job I did, which is called We Bury the Dead, I named my character “Sad, Sad, Ava” because she's having a tough time, and I thought, “You know what? I'm going to go into this, and maybe I'm going to maintain something.” Not that I wanted to be grumpy, but I was like, “Maybe I'll be one of those people who like to stay a bit in the headspace of it.” And then I don't do that either. So, I don't collect anything and don't have a process.

What Is Daisy Ridley's 'We Bury the Dead'?

For people who don't know what's that film about?

RIDLEY: In We Bury the Dead, I play a woman called Ava, who we learn has traveled to Tasmania because there has been a catastrophic incident that has killed a lot of people on the island, but not quite killed a lot of people on the island. So, she has gone to try and find her husband because she doesn't know if he is fully gone or not quite gone. Over the course of the time when she's trying to find him, she finds out she can't go to where he is, so it becomes a bit of a road movie because she escapes with the help of a wonderful man. He's played by a guy called Brenton Thwaites. Such a great guy. He’s so sweet. But the zombies start quite docile and then, as time goes on, it gets a little scarier. So, it's an amazing genre zombie movie, but also it's a meditation on grief and searching for something and searching for an answer, and if the answer is difficult, what do you do with the answer?

You've done some really cool projects in the last two years. Do you have something you're getting ready to film later this year or next year?

RIDLEY: There were a few things that I was really hoping I'd be doing now, but as you said, it's a really, really strange time. Really strange time. But my friend Martin Campbell, who I did this action film Cleaner with, sent me a script a little while ago. He is amazing. He took me to dinner, and I was already like, “Whoa, this is so cool. It’s Martin Campbell!” Even though I made a film with him, I was like, “Oh my god, it's Martin Campbell.” He gave me a script, and I read it, and I had some thoughts, and the writer made some pretty significant changes. So, from the Friday that he gave me the script to the next Friday, the script had been retooled with my notes and we are gathering financing now.

I really hope you're able to get financing.

So, you said you don't have a process. When you are filming something, hypothetically say two months from now, what exactly are the three of you doing in that time to get ready before stepping on set the first day?

LATIF: I suppose it varies. If you're working from a novel of something, say Nautilus or the project I'm working on at the moment, which I can't talk about, you might want to read that first. Once you do it, you put it down and then go in the woods and just go for a long walk and just think about stuff for a while, let the inspiration come. If you've got that spare time to just sort of imagine stuff and let your brain go crazy for a bit. Then you get down to working on your voice and doing all the stuff and doing all the things and script work. But first of all, you take in what you can from the first read and try and just let that take you somewhere.

So say you hypothetically had, like, three months. Do you find that three months out you're sort of thinking about it, but you're letting it simmer, and then as you get closer, you're starting to get way more in your head?

LATIF: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You let seep in and then you go crazy.

When do you turn it on where you're, “Oh, we're full force right now?”

LATIF: Two months before. It depends on how long you have.

Tom?

BATEMAN: I use a lot of techniques from drama school, initially. So, the first couple of times I read it, I will go through and, “What do other characters say about me? What do I say about myself?” To try and flesh out who this guy is. Not just my initial reaction, just from different angles, and then let it sort of simmer. I like to watch a lot of things. The director will often say, “Oh, I'm thinking of this…” Like Ken gave me a whole list of movies before we started shooting that he was thinking of the genre. You kind of know where he's wanting performances to be placed — are they big, small, realistic, understated? What was he thinking?

One of my favorite things, which I think is probably linked to my writing, is I like to write a character diary out for the whole movie so that, effectively, I make myself the lead character so that it's like this whole diary of, “I did this,” which will be a scene in the movie. Then we maybe don't see him for a day or two, and I just write what he did in those two days, and I kind of keep that with me, and I like to read that back before I'm doing a scene. It helps me not get lost and to try and keep a throughline there.

RIDLEY: My preparation, really, is just a lot of thought. I suppose by “not having a process,” I mean something external. I read a lot, and I think a lot. Probably the best thing for me is when you actually get with the other actors and get with the director. We Bury the Dead is a good example. When I read the script, that actually came together very quickly, but from the time I read it to the time I was on set, things had changed, and different thoughts had come up as I'm reading it, and I'm wondering about, “Does this mean this? Does this mean this?” But also, I'm someone who loves to talk as we go, and I'm very open to trying things out and seeing where things go. The scene only is what it is because of the other person that you're with, so I try to be as prepared as possible, but then when I get to set, be very open and ready for my scene partner, too, because sometimes things go way off, where you didn't think it was gonna go. But having a lot of faith in a director and the people that you're working with to let yourself be taken there.

Magpie is in theaters now.

810

Magpie

R

Thriller

A couple find their lives turned upside down when their daughter is cast alongside a controversial major star.

Director

Sam Yates

Cast

Daisy Ridley , Shazad Latif , Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz , Alistair Petrie , Pippa Bennett-Warner , Niall Wright , Cherrelle Skeete , Andy M Milligan , Jenny Galloway , Emmet Kirwan

Runtime

90 Minutes

Writers

Tom Bateman

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